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Angels' Money and Slaves' Lentils
The fossil Nummulites are disc- or lenticle-shaped
fossils with a complex system of internal chambers
arranged in a coil. Despite the fact that they can
reach 6cm in diameter, nummulites are the skeletons
of single-celled organisms (Foraminifera) that
resembled the amoeba. They lived on the sea-bed
mostly during the Eocene and Oligocene periods
(about 50 to 25 million years ago).
The folklore The Egyptian pyramids of Giza are built
of limestone packed with nummulites. Strabo the
Geographer in the first-century BC was told that the
lentil-shaped fossils were remnants of the food of
the slaves who built the pyramids. Other nummulites
have flat shells resembling coins in shape and size;
in folklore, they have been dubbed "angel's money" .
The Greek traveller and writer known as Strabo the
Geographer (ca 63 BC-21 AD) visited the pyramids of
Gizeh which were then some 2500 years old. The
pyramids are constructed of Eocene limestone full of
the fossil shells of nummulites. These are the
remains of single-celled animals (foraminifera) that
lived on the sea-bed and secreted
complexly-chambered, flat shells up to 4 cm in
diameter. The fossil nummulites drop out of the
limestone after weathering. Picking up examples of
these fossils, Strabo was informed that they were
the petrified remains of the food belonging to the
workers who built the pyramids.
The main nummulite found in the limestones of the
pyramids is a species called Nummulites gizehensis .
This exists in two different forms, large and small,
representing respectively the diploid (with two sets
of chromosomes) and haploid (with one set of
chromosomes) stages of the life cycle. The large
form has become known as 'Angels' Money' and the
small form 'Slaves' Lentils'.
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